The Town Talk from Alexandria, Louisiana • Page 31

Obituaries, D-3 Classifieds, D-5 I i -5 Saturday March 5, 1994 Cotile case points out tax problem By Steve Bannister wards have been taxed. Some liv George Metoyer Jr. took the mat that they would have voted against the bond referendum. Both were allowed to vote on a parishwide library tax proposition that was on the same ballot. The main issue contested Friday was whether the Riggses live within the school taxing district.

Most people, including the Registrar of Voters' Office and Slay's office, would have answered "yes" to that question, according to Friday's testimony. That's because Ward 7 and the Cotile school taxing district were thought to cover the same territory. And they did in 1947, when the School Board last set the boundaries for Cotile School District 22A. The School Board defined the southern boundary for the school district as being the Please see COTILE, D-2 Stan reporter BOYCE If you live near the boundary between Wards 5 and 7 in Rapides Parish, you may not be paying the correct amount of property taxes. Rapides Parish Assessor Charles Slay testified Friday there are inconsistencies in the way residents living near the boundary between those two ing in one ward have been taxed as though they lived in the other, Slay testified.

Slay's testimony came during the trial in a lawsuit brought by a Ward 7 couple seeking to throw out the results of a Jan. 15 school bond referendum. The $4.75 million bond issue for Cotile School District 22A passed by one vote. Ninth Judicial District Judge ter under advisement Friday at the conclusion of the trial. A decision is not expected for several weeks.

The couple, William Riggs Jr. and Virginia Riggs, were not allowed to vote in the bond referendum despite being registered voters and taxpayers in Ward 7 since 1992. The couple testified Friday City has rf-v 1 -wv -w -4- i 1 Mim fi Rutlor The Town Talk il 1 si 1 1 1 I I i I 1 New bridge finally opens Motorists will not have to stop for water traffic i'f A Dirt, Sweat Steel What went into the construction of the new Red River bridge, i1 graveyard Do you know where Alexandria's elephant graveyard is? No, that is not a lead-in to a Republican political joke. The question is posed to get us into a letter from Vernon Procell, who grew up here early this century and now lives in Hamilton Square, N.J. He sends unsolicited recollections of our city.

"I remember the great showboats coming up Red river, tying at the Pineville bridge and staying a month or longer. When the world war (the first one) began, they would come as often as the river level allowed," he recalls. His favorites among the regulars were the Cotton Blossom and the Delta Queen. Occasionally, the world-famous Natchez would steam in, generating quite a stir among the citizenry. The boats attracted large crowds from among area residents and from among the troops training at Camp Stafford (current site of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center) and fledgling Camp Beauregard.

Fields among them Equally popular, Procell notes, were traveling entertainers. He mentions the Paul English Players, W.C. Fields Minstrel Shows and F.S. Walcott's Rabbit's Foot Minstrel shows as frequent visitors. Procell lived with an uncle and aunt, Mr.

and Mrs. J.M. Williams, at 2202 Hynson. While still a student, he demonstrated an entrepreneur's bent, selling The Town Talk on a discounted basis. "Some afternoons after school, I would go to the newspaper and get some papers that were three or four days old.

I would take them into the red-light district. I had no trouble selling them even though they were old news because they (those plying their in that section) were not I allowed to go out to get anything lat any time." It's doubtful the Town Talk I Circulation Department ever 'knew about that route. Procell remembers that Alexandria was called the Heart of Louisiana, a designation proclaimed by a sign over Jackson Street that greeted arrivals at Station, Jackson and 10th streets. He doesn't know that both the sign and the station are long since gone. Remnants of the train station are incorporated in design and materials of the bus transfer station at Murray and -Main streets.

Procell asks if City Park is still used on lower Lee street. The Judith Meeks Staff photographer Fulton Bridge (left). The new to northbound traffic today. if 1. By Mark Watson Staff reporter Charles Humphries drove across the expanse of clean concrete that is the new Red River bridge, pulled over to the side in a way he won't be able to do after today, and explained with animated voice and hand gestures what remains to be done.

This is the day that the new Red River bridge that $16.4 million dream which started to become reality five years ago next month opens to the public. Humphries is Johnson Brothers Construction engineer for this project. Johnson Brothers built the approaches to the new bridge. Another company, Jensen Contractors, constructed the bridge itself. It's quite a contrast between the old and the new, and Humphries points that out.

The new bridge, since it is so high, will not need to be raised to accommodate water traffic, and it has no steel superstructure like the old Alexander Fulton Bridge next door. From a distance, the short concrete walls on the side of the bridge seem rather short. There's no railing on top. But at 32 inches high, the concrete walls meet state requirements. Partly because there are no steel railings on top of these walls, pedestrians are not allowed on the new bridge.

Instead, for as long as the Fulton Bridge is available, people can cross the river that way on foot, and after that can still use the Gillis Long Bridge, commonly called the Jackson Street Bridge. Starts at 2:30 p.m. About noon today, construction workers will begin preparing the stripes and barrels for a change in traffic flow. About 2:30 p.m., all northbound traffic on Casson Street will stop at Foisy Street. When the last car mounts the Cottingham Expressway bridge over the Kansas City Southern Railroad in Pineville, Johnson will signal traffic control to allow motorists to head north again, but instead of going on the Alexander Fulton Bridge, they will enter the new unnamed bridge.

Northbound drivers will have two lanes to themselves, instead of having to form one lane and detour to one of the southbound Cottingham Expressway lanes. But southbound drivers will still have to form one lane just north of the Kansas City Southern railroad in Pineville and form two lanes just before the Fulton Bridge. By next Friday, however, southbound drivers will also have two lanes to themselves all along the Cottingham Expressway, across the Fulton Bridge and into Alexandria. For about three months, southbound drivers will use the old bridge, while northbound drivers will use the new bridge. person elected judge in the 35th Judicial District and that, by that statement, officially resigned from the post.

The form is signed by Lutes and a notary and dated Feb. 28. Lutes, who reportedly has suffered from health problems, had not appeared in court for several months. Retired 9th Judicial District Judge Robert Jackson was appointed last fall to handle Lutes' cases while Lutes took vacation time that he had built up over the years. wnicn opens today: 18,135 cubic yards of concrete 275,000 to 300,000 man-hours, or about 32.5 man-years, of labor 1.9 million pounds of steel $16.4 million The bridge, which is unnamed, will be used for northbound traffic only for the next three months.

During that time, southbound traffic will continue to use the Alexander Fulton Bridge. During the next three months, a southbound exit ramp will be built to allow future southbound motorists on the new bridge to exit into Alexandria and begin using Fulton Street through the underpass again. At the end of that construction perhaps in June southbound Cottingham Expressway traffic will be detoured to two lanes of the new bridge, which will remain the traffic pattern until the old Fulton Bridge is replaced. Construction on that project is set to begin in August, but may begin earlier because the bridge will be available sooner. Johnson Brothers' construction of the approaches to the new Red River bridge is about 90 percent complete, with only about 65 percent of the work time expired, said Jim Massey, state Department of Transportation and Development project engineer.

Massey said he is "very pleased" that the bridge opens today. "I think it is a tribute to Johnson Brothers, the state and the Federal Highway Administration that it was done so soon," Massey said. "We've had great cooperation from all parties responsible to this project." Although the state and Johnson Brothers had said they hoped to open the new bridge in January, the weather created unforeseen delays. Humphries said January was an "internal goal," but they have several weeks' work time left on the contract. Humphries attributes the ahead-of-schedule opening to the "partnering" concept pioneered in this project.

Johnson Brothers, DOTD field personnel and DOTD design staffers in Baton Rouge created an unusually well-integrated communication network that allowed decisions to be made more quickly, Humphries said. Lutes, a former Grant Parish district attorney, took office in January 1984. Attempts to interview Lutes Friday evening failed. When Lutes was reached at his home by telephone at 6:15 p.m., he said he was involved in an important meeting and asked the reporter to check back in a half-hour. No one answered the telephone when Lutes' home was called again at 7:25 p.m.

and 8:05 p.m. (3 LjrJif, i Pineville from the Alexander River bridge near bridge will open K' retired state employee draws $700 per month. Her comments came at the annual meeting of the central Louisiana chapter of the association. The chapter includes members from Avoyelles, Catahoula, Concordia, Grant, LaSalle, Natchitoches, Rapides, Sabine, Vernon and Winn parishes. "You should call and tell your legislator to explain to the governor we need to be included," Mrs.

Please see RAISE, D-2 If' This view looking toward Alexandria shows the new Red if 7 James M. Blair Staff photographer Charles Humphries, Johnson Brothers opens for northbound traffic today, southbound Construction Co. project engineer, stands on the traffic will continue to use the Alexander Fulton new Red River bridge while explaining future Bridge (left). The new bridge should be open to bridge-related plans. When the new bridge traffic by 2:30 p.m.

pars nas Deen ai us current sue Masonic Drive for more than 50 years, which gives us some idea about how long Procell has been gone from our city Procell, whose handwriting is as crisp as his memory, would like an edition of our paper to bring himself up to date. We'll nna onH norVionc ho will ho OtilU U11U Jiuyu lii t-rs kind enough to share additional memories of our city long ago. Circus in town Back to the graveyard ques- tion. Procell remembers that in 1923 the John Robinson Circus came to town, setting up at the old cir-- cus grounds by the railroad tracks at Gould Avenue (now called Rapides Avenue). Shortly after the circus arrived, six of its elephants died from drinking poisoned water 1 somewhere along the route to Alexandria.

What to do with six dead ele-: phants? Bury them, of course. "A monster hole was dug at the circus grounds, and the elephants were buried. I wonder if someone has come across those skeletons during digging over the years since," he says. Now you know where the graveyard is, if it hasn't disappeared during road excavation over the years. Don't go rushing over with a shovel, hoping to come across ivory tusks worth their weight in gold.

Procell notes that circus laborers sawed the tusks off before disposing of the elephants. Jim Butler is The Town Talk's managing editor. He can be reached at 487-6370. District Judge B.G. Lutes resigns Retirees want to be included in pay raise Town Talk Capitol Bureau BATON ROUGE Grant Parish's 35th Judicial District Judge B.G.

"Billy" Lutes has resigned. Lutes, who quietly cleared out his office last Monday, resigned the same day effective at 5 p.m. Lutes submitted a notarized resignation form to the secretary of state's commissions division. The form is a sworn statement from Lutes that he is the By Jim Leggett Staff reporter State retirees are pressing Gov. Edwin Edwards to include them in a proposal to give present state employees a 5 percent pay raise, central Louisiana retirees were told Friday.

Lela Detlefs, president of the Retired State Employees Association, said there are retirees living at or near the poverty level and need cost-of-living raises. She said the average.